Without the Force pod, R-Type would have been a good shooter -- lots of great scenery and plenty of stuff to shoot at. But by making the mechanic of using the Force central to the game and not as an afterthought or gimmick, R-Type bloomed into an unforgettable game. Your first few quarters got you some lessons with the inventive weapon. The Force pod's natural placement is on the front of your ship, acting as both a defensive tool and your primary means of offense. However, you can jettison the Force pod into the distance and use it to mount a forward assault on your enemies. Firing with the Force pod detached deploys angled shots and shots going north and south. You can also back into the Force pod so it attaches to the rear of the Arrowhead and fires behind you as well as absorb any incoming enemy fire.

Utilizing the Force pod efficiently is the difference between slicing through a boss battle with surprising ease and burning through eight quarters to do so. For example, on the second stage boss, firing out the Force pod and then recalling it so it gets caught next to the monster's eye is a great way to finish the battle without putting yourself in too much danger. (If you're brave, there is also a small pouch next to the eye to slide the Arrowhead into, but you better have your pixels lined up just right.) The Force pod is also powerful enough that it can kill smaller enemies on contact, making it an effective battering ram if you have several Bydo fighters lined up.

Rebound Power-UpBy this point in the genre, shooters were partially defined by their weapons and power-ups. The Arrowhead is factory-standard with a laser cannon that can be charged up for a super-blast. The Force pod is upgraded by collecting three different jewels. The first jewel you collect by blasting open a small hopper ship grants you the Force pod itself. The second jewel powers-up the Force pod with a weak version of a special weapon, depending on the color of the jewel. The third jewel fully upgrades the Force pod and unleashes the full power of the special weapon. The blue jewel unlocks a three-pronged rebound laser that ricochets off surfaces. The red jewel is a wave weapon -- individual red and blue lasers erupt from the Force pod and weave around each other creating a wide area of destruction. The yellow jewel is a napalm-like weapon. Two explosive shots pop out of the northern and southern ends of the Force pod and then crawl along surfaces, burning up targets in their paths. In addition to these Force pod power-ups, you can also collect missiles, speed boosts, and Bits. Bits are excellent defensive measure since they flank your ship and are indestructible like the Force pod.

R-Type's stages are individual masterpieces.

The weapons work in tandem with R-Type other star factor: stage design. Each stage has a theme, such as a monster lab, a mothership showdown, or a galactic garbage dump. R-Type's themed stages are exciting puzzles that must be played repeatedly in order to figure out the smartest path through them. As mentioned, shooters are about survival more than anything else and so you must discover special safe zones and vantage points to avoid the brunt of Bydo attacks. Returning fire is always important, but location is perhaps even more critical to success.

Neither of these elements -- stage design or weapon design -- was developed exclusive of the other. You see evidence of this everywhere in R-Type. In the first stage, the rebound laser is given to you just as you approach a revolving array of laser cannons. In the second stage, the "Alien"-like bio horror show, you can either stick the with rebound laser to deliver surgical strikes on the monsters wriggling in the masses of tissue on the ceiling or floor or try the napalm power-up and let the burning shots creep toward the creatures. These features, combined with the game's clever difficulty, made it an instant classic and R-Type rocketed to the top of the genre's "best of" lists.

While enjoying its arcade run, R-Type began to make the rounds on home consoles and computers. Despite Nintendo distributing the game in arcades, R-Type never made it to the NES. Instead, it was ported to the Master System and later, the TurboGrafx-16. A Nintendo machine finally did host R-Type when it dropped on to the Game Boy Color in the wholly competent but not necessarily thrilling R-Type DX. R-Type appeared on the C64, Atari ST, Amiga, and other personal computers through the late eighties.

Like any successful videogame, R-Type was a launching pad for a franchise. Irem quickly went back to work on a sequel to its hit shooter, not surprisingly called R-Type II.